The ShadowClan Tunnels (open to all)

Swiftpaw wandered through the woods, following the scent of squirrels. He stopped to catch the scent in a bush, and stalked over crunchy leaves, not making a sound, just like he was trained. This was the hunting assessment that would help determine if he would become a warrior before the next Gathering. Swiftpaw wasn’t wasting it in any way. As he leaped to pounce on a squirrel, he extended his claws to sink into the furry pelt. As he landed, he cleanly caught the squirrel, pinning it down and delivering a quick killing bite to the neck. As he took a step into a bush to see if it was a good place to bury his prey, his paws were met with open air, and he fell into a shallow open space underneath the bush, leading down into the ground. A secret tunnel.

Ignoring the far-away calls of his mentor searching for him, he took a few cautious steps into the tunnel, and then padded into the darkness. Maybe if he found a secret tunnel into ThunderClan territory, Icestar would have no choice but to make him a warrior for his unfailing bravery to go into the unknown and bring back a new strategy for ShadowClan. Forget hunting; Swiftpaw wanted himself to be known not for just catching 6 pieces of prey in one ceremony, but for discovering a new travel system.

When Sunflare followed his apprentice’s scent to a hole in the ground that led to tunnels, he immediately headed back to camp to gather a patrol, knowing the musty scents would cover his apprentice’s trail through the winding underground tunnels he had discovered. Tunnels in the territory, imagine! One cat could disappear like a whisper if he took off through the tunnels himself. And if Swiftpaw exited the tunnels in another Clan’s territory, surely no warrior would spare a ShadowClan apprentice. As Sunflare bounded into camp to report his apprentice’s disappearance, thunder sounded overhead. If it rained, the tunnels would flood, and Swiftpaw, no matter how fast he could run, would be history. They would have to find Swiftpaw quickly, or else.

Plot:
Basically Swiftpaw is lost in some newly discovered tunnels, so cats are trying to find him. Other Clans can independently find the tunnels, or join the ShadowClan search party; it’s your decision. However, the tunnels are filled with surprises, such as floods, avalanches, old bones, strange creatures, and the list goes on. The roleplay will end when all the cats are out of the tunnels safely or when the flood hits. Second characters are recommended to be killed off by the end of the roleplay, but honestly whatever you want to do with them is fine with me.

This roleplay is open to cats of all Clans, loners, and rouges, since the tunnels stretch all the way underneath the Clan territories. They pop up all over, too- be creative. Unless if you want to make a second character, we will roleplay with our username characters, like we would in an ORPG. You don’t need to post a joining post; just jump right in. If you have any out-of-character questions, PM them to me instead of posting them here; it will make the roleplay easier to follow.


Events that have happened so far in the RPG:
-Swiftpaw gets lost
-Raz(Nocte) enters the tunnels, realizes Swiftpaw is in there
-Streamstar falls into tunnels
-ShadowClan sends patrol to tunnels

I'm going to make a sort of brief thing for my character anyways. .u.

Raz was born and raised as a rogue. She'd always lived near the Clans, and knows enough about them to know how their hierarchy, their system of patrols, their history, etc. She's highly intelligent and clever, observant and quick to learn. Her hobbies consist of swimming and exploring. Although she can be compassionate and loyal to both strangers and friends, she won't hesitate to betray someone if she can preserve herself. Her parents raised her with certain rules, like how you can help others, but not the point where you bring about your own downfall. Raz is a slightly smaller-than-average she-cat with a lean, wiry build. Her short fur is an extremely dark gray, almost black, but not quite. Her eyes are also a dark color, a gray-green. She's long-legged, but not overly so, with a long tail. Her entire appearance and build is optimized for speed and moving around silent in the shadows. The tunnels are her "play area" and she knows them as well as the back of her own paw.

((Russetfeather is just a clan born kitteh, that is deputy. She is knowledgable with the tunnels .u.)

Russetfeather padded into camp, back from a patrol. "Now to set the evening patrol." She huffed, tired from chasing down quite a bit of frogs today. "Let's see, who shall I pick today," she thought out loud while observing her clanmates.

Icestar padded out of her den just as Sunflare rushed into camp, breathless and telling the story of how his apprentice disappeared. "Russetfeather!" Icestar called. "I think the evening patrol is off. We need most of our warriors searching for this apprentice, especially since he's almost a warrior. We will probably need a medicine cat or two also, in case he got hurt in the tunnels." Icestar was worried. It had been a while since ShadowClan lost a warrior or apprentice. Swiftpaw showed promise as a young warrior, and it was a shame he had gotten lost during his exam. Icestar wanted to do as much as possible to help her apprentice, but ShadowClan wasn't really trained in the art of tunnel navigation. This was one of the first times a usable entrance had been found on ShadowClan territory. Maybe the apprentices should also go through a few sessions of how to navigate and escape the tunnels.

Scarheart ran out of the den as she meard the wordmissing. "Whats missing?!" She bursted. She stared at Icestar.

Raz prowled into the entrance of the tunnel she always went in. It was close to the border of the WindClan territory, but she almost never saw a patrol. The black she-cat flicked her tail happily and trotted through the darkness. The ground was uneven here, dangerous with small holes that could twist a paw, bumps and rocks that cause a cat to trip. But she was well-accustomed to it at this point, so she moved with relative ease.

Usually, from here, she would head straight for the tunnel center, where the underground stream cut around it. Raz tasted the air, hopeful for the scent of a wandering mouse, but instead smelled cat. It wasn't her scent trail. She froze, blinking slowly as she turned her head to take in the scent again. Fresh, pine trees, and prey. One of the Clans, probably ShadowClan, because it was known for the pine trees in its territory. Bristling Raz headed down a different tunnel. Why were the Clan cats coming here now?

~Any other RiverClan cats who join can be on this patrol if they want~

Streamstar snarled at the fox she was chasing. A few days ago, the fox had been scented in RiverClan territory, and now, finally the patrol she was leading had found its den. The fox had put up a fight at first, but after realizing how badly outnumbered it was, it ran. Now, Streamstar and the others on the patrol were chasing it towards the border. The fox was starting to slow down a bit, so when it came into her reach, Streamstar clawed its tail, and the fox yelped and ran faster. They were almost at the border, when suddenly, the ground beneath her paws suddenly disappeared. She fell and landed in some sort of tunnel. The hole had been completely hidden in the undergrowth, so she wasn't able to see it before she fell. She hadn't fallen far enough to get any serious injuries, but it was too far for her to climb back up. "I'm okay," she shouted back up to the rest of the patrol, "But I'm stuck in this tunnel, and I'll have to find another way out!"

Russetfeather jumped. Icestar wouldn't be so urgent. "Lost apprentice? Oh geez, those tunnels are so complicated. StarClan knows where that apprentice went." Russetfeather mewed in a mouthful. "We'll have to gather a couple warriors along with us, there probably is a bunch of rogues and rabid animals hanging out there." She added. "Who should we take?"

"Well, since Scarheart is right here, we can take her, and we should probably take Glimmermist too, in case if anyone gets hurt. We can always send a second patrol later in case if we aren't finding him in the tunnels. Scarheart, Swiftpaw has disappeared into the tunnels, and we all know how confusing those can be, so we need to find him and get everyone out by the time it rains. Are you guys ready to save Swiftpaw?" Icestar flicked her tail in anticipation. Sitting around chatting wasn't going to bring back Swiftpaw.

" Ok. Want me to go get glimmermist?"She nodded her head in agreement.

"Sure." Icestar nodded to Scarheart. "In the meantime, no time can be wasted. Russetfeather and I will begin to search the tunnels. You can catch up to us later. We will leave claw marks in the ground by the paths we've taken so you can follow us or search different paths. See ya at the end of the tunnel!" Icestar started to walk out of camp, towards where Sunflare said Swiftpaw disappeared. Sniffing around, Icestar stepped into a tunnel hidden by a bush, and was immediatly assaulted with a number of scents, all mixed in the confines of the tunnels, unable to tell where each was coming from. "Swiftpaw's ShadowClan scent is pretty fresh," noted Icestar. "There is also a trace of RiverClan, though, and a slightly rougish scent. We might meet friends or enemies in our search for Swiftpaw."

((it would be helpful to keep the roleplay moving if you posted more than a sentence or two, Scarheart. Don't be scared to say something that makes a plot twist or something))

Scarheart nodded. She followed Icestar. " I do hope he is ok. Those tunnels can be very dangerous." She looked at Icestar and Russetfeather worried. She stopped and started to think of him.

(Who is his mentor?)

((Sunflare is his mentor right?))


Russetfeather nodded, and trekked behind Icestar. "Rogues." She mewed simply, stopping to smell. "Er, make that rogue. I only smell one of them." Russet corrected. "Poor Swiftpaw. Lost in all that mud and slime." The she-cat mewed shuddering. Russetfeather was a neat freak and hated messy things. "Come on Scarheart, we can't waste anytime. It's about to rain and Swiftpaw's life is at risk." She said, not looking behind her.

(( I made up Sunflare as Swiftpaw's mentor but it doesn't really matter, honestly, since they don't exist on the site other than this RP topic. Anyways, we should eventually bump into Nocte (Raz) or Streamstar soon ))

Icestar shivered a little with Russetfeather, but it wasn't because of the muck. It had begun to drizzle, and rain had begun to drip slowly into the tunnels. That meant their time had already begun to drain out. Icestar picked her pace up a little, and trotted through the dark tunnels, with the occasional hole in the roof and her whiskers to guide her. After a short time, the patrol reached a fork in the tunnels. "Should we split up here, or should we choose a path to travel together? And if so, which ones should we choose?"

(That would be fine. c:)

Raz padded down the tunnel she knew would soon end up near RiverClan territory, if she took the right fork. She was on her guard now, ever since she'd smelled that ShadowClan cat scent earlier on. Who knows how many others would follow. The black she-cat paused again, pricking her ears when she heard a yowl, echoing and faint. It came before her. RiverClan too? Cursing her bad luck, Raz whipped around and fled in the direction of the central cave.

"I believe we should spilt up into small groups. Like I pointed at before, StarClan knows what lurks in that tunnel. And it's faster to track a cat down if we would split up into small groups and track Swiftpaw down." Russetfeather mewed, looking at the dark and mucky tunnel. She paused to sniff the air. "No sign of Swiftpaw yet. All I can smell are those horrid rats lurking around. If I was you guys, I'd be on the look out." She mewed, her nose twitching.

" Ok then. Who will I be assigned with?" Her pelt bristled at the sight of all the tunnels. She flatten her ears as water drip on to her. Water was her least favorite element of all due to her pelt sticking to her skin when it gets wet.

"I don't mind going by myself. I think splitting into groups is a good idea. I'll go to the left if you go to the right." Icestar swiped a single claw in the dirt in front of the left tunnel, her sign that she had gone down that tunnel. "If your tunnel dead-ends, you can turn around and find my path this way. If I find Swiftpaw, I'll yowl really loud, and hopefully you'll hear me. If the tunnels flood, escape at once. Its not worth losing three warriors instead of just one. Go as quickly as you can. I'll see you both later." Icestar took a deep breath and scented cat and musty, earthy scents. Without hesitation, she began to run down her tunnel, wanting to find Swiftpaw and whoever else was down here before it was too late and the tunnels flooded.

~Sorry I'm late~

Glimmering her someone say her name.She calmly padded out of her den not Knowing the recent event. She trotted up to the small crowd of cats. "What's Wrong?" she mewed as curiosity overcoming her.

"Swiftpaw went missing in the tunnels." Russetfeather replied, looking behind her. "We're going to find him and get back before it rains and the tunnels flood." She added. Her tail twitched. "Perhaps you'd like to come along?" She said in deep thought.

{600th post C:}

" Ok I will have my eyes peeled and my ears sharp." She looked at glimmermist and russetfeather. " So we all are going together?"

Icestar raced down her tunnel, stopping for a few seconds every couple hundred tail-lengths to scent the air. After a few minutes, she started picking up traces of the rouge scent. The tunnel turned to the left slightly, and as Icestar turned, there was a dark gray cat with dark green eyes sitting in a patch of moonlight filtering down from a hole in the ceiling. Icestar gasped and took a step back into the shadows, but kicked over a rock that made a loud noise. Icestar cursed silently. Now the cat would know she was here.

((Good into into meeting Raz?))

"Sure." Russetfeather replied not looking behind her. She took the lead. The tunnel she chose with her team was damp and slimy. "Rats are nearby." Russet mewed, her hair pricked. Russet padded foward and began to sniff the air. Thankfully she was an excellent tracker. "No Swiftpaw. Just rats." The she-cat mewed gloomily.

" Stinking rats." Scarheart mumbled. " Lets try this tunnel" She pointed to a tunnel. She pricked her ears as a rat stepped on a twig. " So this is were the rats are mainly now."

"Scarheart. Watch out." Russetfeather growled. "Rats carrry diseases that can kill any cat." She said, crouching down. Her pupils were wide. Russet had to admit, she hated rats. Her siblings were killed by rats. She sneaked behind one, and bit it, shaking it back and foward. "Scarheart. Halp meh take dese wats downn." Russet muffled with the rat in her mouth.